MY 15 / PART 1

IF you were here yesterday, you know that this post is about my picks for the 15 albums that most influenced me musically. It is a very personal list with little rhyme or reason. Just what I feel moved me in the directions my musical taste wandered. It was inspired by this post 15 Recordings, As Chosen By Donatello, With Mine To Follow
and encouraged by Suldog himself.




OOOOOkaaaaaay... As Alvin would have said. This is the beginning of musical influences in my life. Maybe its because I grew up in Fresno California... where Dave a.k.a

Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. was born and later created the fab three rodent stars. It's natural that they would have had an impact on my young life. I used to play this album to death. I still sing the song below when no one is listening and I feel like amusing my inner child.

Alvin and the Chipmunks- I Wish I Had a Horse

Another very important musical influence from that period of time was Pete Seeger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia who came to my grammar school, T.L. Heaton, and sang to us in our Hattie May Hammet Hall. As he sang, used his storytelling skills and played the banjo, he gave me one of the greatest childhood memories of my life. I will never forget shaking his hand. He ties in musically throughout my life via Arlo Guthrie to the Dropkick Murphys and countless others in between. A kind and wonderful man and musician. I hope you got to see the recent PBS special about him. He is... in my personal humble opinion... one of our greatest American musical treasures.




Though I admit while I know what I like... I am no musician myself and have trouble carrying so little as a tune. This period of time was full of Chipmonks and Sing A Long With Mitch Miller and a symphony rendition of this fellow's work titled...

Pictures at an Exhibition (Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich) - IMSLP ...

The Gnome was my favorite and I could whirl like a dervish all over the living room as it played. My father had been a jazz trumpet player once upon a time. Music was all over our house. It was unfortunate that I was musically deficient. But I did love it.

My father gave me this album for Christmas one year. I was completely bamboozled by this action. Had I asked Santa for this? NO!

Yet when I listened to it, I fell in love with Johnny Cash's smokey velvety storyteller's voice. The combination of music and story is still intoxicating to me. Johnny Cash is responsible for my love of lyrics. Even when he was not writing his own songs, he had a great ear for the stories in other writer's songs.

I know that I have told this story before... how my brother and sister influence my musical taste by giving me the albums they had purchased and cast off as unwanted.This album by Cream opened up all the doors and windows in my head.For the first time the stories in there could become, instead of merely being heard.

This is not the Zeppelin album that my sister gave me. But it is the album that I love most. Not only can you listen to it... you can play with it. There's a wheel between the cover and the inner jacket that turns... there are several cut outs where the pictures on the wheel below them can be changed as you thumb the wheel at the side. Hours and hours were spent twirling this wheel as I listened... enjoyed... giggled.

This is where my childhood merged with my more adult tastes...

Remember the little dervish child who twirled to The Gnome?

On this album Emmerson, Lake and Plamer blended my good old Mussorgsky with their brand of rock and created an extraordinary exhibition of their own.

EMERSON LAKE & PALMER - Promenade & The Gnome

ELP en Pictures at an Exhibition - Promenade_The Gnome_Promenade Concierto . Disfrutalo . Enjoy

I am not a musician , I am a listener. What you see here is entirely from the point of view of a listener. The albums are not really in any particular order. They are in chaos, like my files in my head... and connect in ways that are mind boggling at best. It is not uncommon for me to link from one group to another because one member of a band moves to another band... and drags me behind.

I make musical connections based on a great many things... like did you know that Black Sabbith, Yes and Jabberwocky are all connected at the "Wakeman"... meaning Oliver, Adam and Rick Wakeman? (Oliver and Adam are Rick Wakeman's sons.) Or that I found Yes... because I loved the Strawbs and followed Rick Wakeman to Yes.

My favorite line from the Strawbs is "For he had yet to suffer!"

Delivered in a way that makes me want that guy to suffer.

I like almost all music. I appreciate it for a lot of reasons... the lyrics and melodies, sounds, people, stories, voices, humor, emotions evoked... etc. None of my tastes are based on any knowledge of anything I can put a solid finger on. I know only what I hear that I like for whatever reason it strikes me as a keeper.

There will be two more installments on this subject. I had to split them up... I'm too darned chatty to get it out in one post or even two. I hope you enjoy something here... today, tomorrow and the next day.

Have a wonderful Thursday... you might want to think of a "15 recordings list" yourself and join the fun.



Life with the frogs continues to be fun and interesting. Today another driving lesson for Squeaky... yikes. I baked those cookies and hid them under the frozen veggies where the boy will never look. ha. I'm just working for the weekend... to steal a line from Loverboy. Its almost here. Big grin.